On Chen Luo's side, after everyone traveled together to the city that Aaron had identified as the place where he had once escaped, they had just reached the surface when a completely abandoned city came into view. Monster and human corpses were scattered everywhere, and the air was filled with a heavy stench of blood. It seemed that traces of the war still remained here.
After having no choice but to cover their noses to avoid the nauseating stench of blood and flesh, the group found a high-rise building located between two other buildings. Chen Luo signaled for everyone to enter together, still carrying some of their own belongings.
The moment everyone entered the building, the underground passage they had somehow used to reach the surface completely collapsed, leaving no trace behind. Only a pile of rubble remained, as though nothing had ever existed there.
Perhaps it was because the place had become too old, or perhaps something had accidentally caused the entire station to collapse, but now that it had collapsed, there was nothing particularly strange about it.
On the assassins' side, just as they arrived at the nearest location where traces of Chen Luo's group remained, they discovered that the underground passage had somehow already collapsed.
The trail ended there completely.
-"Looks like they've already left. We arrived one step too late. What a bunch of cowards. If it hadn't taken so long to get here, would you have even managed to escape?"
One of them could not help complaining resentfully.
After all, they had spent several hours traveling here, only to let their enemy escape one step ahead of them.
-"Whether they managed to escape or not has nothing to do with you."
A black-clad figure had somehow appeared behind them and coldly spoke those words, startling all the assassins.
However, before they could say anything, a dark blade swept horizontally across all of them, sending them straight to meet their ancestors.
Those crimson eyes slowly gazed at the fallen corpses from within the darkness.
Only after confirming that they truly showed no signs of life did the black-clad figure slowly leave.
Yet those eyes hidden in the distant darkness continued staring fixedly at the underground passage through which Chen Luo had departed.
Had anyone else been present at this moment, they would probably have felt a chill run down their spine.
By now, night had also fallen.
After the battle, everyone was already quite exhausted, so they temporarily slept on the first floor.
After all, they no longer had enough strength to climb to the higher floors.
However, to ensure their safety, they still barricaded the main entrance.
From then on, Aaron, Chris, Hina, and Chen Luo took turns standing guard.
Since Chen Luo had once undergone compulsory military service, keeping watch at night was not difficult for him.
The other one human and two beasts, however, were doing this for the first time and were clearly somewhat unaccustomed to it.
At around 11 a.m. the following day, everyone finally woke up after an exhausting night.
Everyone comfortably stretched their bodies.
Most of them had slept quite well, with only those who had stayed awake to stand guard appearing slightly tired.
Even so, everyone still felt quite comfortable after such a long night's sleep, so no one was still drowsy.
Suddenly, a tremendous sound came from the distance, seemingly produced by something enormous.
Chen Luo and the others had just rushed outside when they discovered a level 25 mutated monster.
It had already begun moving.
Sensing that something seemed wrong, Chen Luo told everyone to follow behind the Silver Wolf pack, while only Chris and Hina accompanied him at the front.
The two of them then jumped onto Hina's back.
Thanks to their nearly inaudible footsteps, they went unnoticed by the monster.
In this manner, they closely followed it for a long distance.
Only several minutes later did everyone finally arrive at their destination.
At this moment, Chen Luo and Chris stood at a high vantage point and observed the area below.
An unbelievable number of undead monsters had gathered there, almost like an army, although they were still far from being a proper military force.
Faced with such enormous numbers, no matter how many Profession Users there were, it would still be extremely difficult to repel them if their damage output could not keep up with the monsters' rate of advance.
But conversely, this scene gave Chen Luo a strange sense of excitement.
After all, for large-scale battles of this magnitude, it was only natural that top professional power-levelers could continuously break through them single-handedly.
Otherwise, Chen Luo would never have been known as one of the server's top power-leveling masters, standing alongside the top figures from ten years ago.
Without any hesitation, Chen Luo had Chris split off and go below to clear the weaker monsters.
Under Chen Luo's orders, Hina commanded the Silver Wolf pack to assist the children in battle.
Protecting Alice was especially important.
She was the team's living mobile healing pack, so protecting her was the highest priority.
A series of roars erupted from the Silver Wolves and Hina, immediately provoking the surrounding monsters.
They were quickly drawn toward the wolf pack.
The others fought together while riding on the wolves' backs.
Chen Luo and Chris rapidly cleared the monsters from the rear.
These monsters were relatively low level.
They might require some effort from Chris and the Silver Wolves, but to Chen Luo, they were not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.
After all, in order to prevent players from exploiting low-level monsters to grind EXP, the game had drastically reduced the amount of EXP provided by monsters more than three levels below the player's own level.
For the simplest example, if you were level 14, killing a level 10 monster would grant you at most 30% of the EXP it originally provided.
However, fighting monsters above your own level was completely different.
Sometimes, players could even receive additional rewards.
Chen Luo said nothing and directly used the Lonefang Wolf Blade.
(The military knife had already been discarded in an earlier chapter; you can go back and check the specific details yourself.)
Chen Luo quickly sat on Hina's back.
Although he was somewhat unfamiliar with using the Infinite Sword Technique, there was no other choice. The Myriad Extremes Divine Sword was damaged, and he currently lacked sufficient materials to repair it.
Therefore, Chen Luo could only resort to this inferior alternative.
Although its damage and effective attack range were no longer as high as before, it was still sufficient to handle the battle before him.
Immediately afterward, one basic sword technique after another from the Infinite Sword Technique was unleashed.
Although he could not use some of its advanced skills, these were already more than enough to clear the monsters before him.
Chen Luo did not think much and directly activated 「Madness」.
One slash after another was unleashed in rapid succession.
With the combination of 「Devour」 and 「Disappearance」, Chen Luo's Stamina consumption was no longer as severe as last time.
Chen Luo planned to replenish his attributes after the battle ended.
After all, he had already reached level 20, yet his attributes were still far too low.
If things continued like this, they would instead become a disadvantage for him.
In the end, he still came face-to-face with that figure.
Chen Luo did not stop at all and charged straight forward.
Although his opponent was only five levels higher than him, because his own attributes had not yet been replenished, Chen Luo began to struggle somewhat.
If his movements had not been fast enough, that previous attack would probably have killed him on the spot.
One slash after another followed, producing sounds as though steel and stone were being struck.
"Clang! Clang!"
Crisp sounds of collision rang out one after another.
Chen Luo said nothing and directly allocated 4 attribute points to AD and another 4 to Armor Penetration.
His damage began increasing continuously.
Those venom-coated slashes also began to display their maximum effectiveness.
After more than twenty minutes of chaotic battle, that towering figure finally collapsed.
All the loot had also been completely collected by the system.
Apart from the monster corpses, which could be offered to guilds or used to strengthen certain equipment, their cores could also be sold for a very good price.
This time, Chen Luo said nothing and directly sold all the assassins' equipment, along with all the cores he had obtained that day.
After all, ordinary equipment was of little use to him given his current needs.
The players had not descended yet, so there was no need for him to rush to make use of these items.
As the towering figure fell, the children finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, fighting these monsters was already exhausting enough for them, let alone personally dealing with such a powerful monster.
The children began looking at Chen Luo with admiration.
As for Chris, he did not particularly care about this.
After all, he had already witnessed Chen Luo's strength with his own eyes.
Whether in terms of thinking or combat ability, there was no way he could surpass Chen Luo.
Ultimately, this was only natural.
If a child could completely surpass a player like Chen Luo in thinking, knowledge, and combat ability, that would be the truly strange thing.
It could never be because there was something wrong with Chen Luo himself.
After everyone began regrouping, a voice suddenly came from behind the corpse...